Books

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Over the holidays I finished reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. It was loaned to me by a friend. My mother-in-law has read it too, so I guess it must be popular. It's the story of Amir, who grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the son of a wealthy businessman, immigrates to the US with his father, and then eventually returns to his homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover. The story is quite dark and some of the plot twists are a bit too telegraphed, but all-in-all I enjoyed it. The book's name refers to the kite battles that kids have. They coat their kite strings with ground glass to make them razor sharp and then compete to have the last kite flying with its string still attached. A kite runner is the person who chases down a kite after it is liberated from it's string. Whoever runs it down gets to keep it.

The Berenstain Bears series of books are some of the most popular in our house these days. We picked up a big stack of them at the last Friends of the Library used book sale. The books are written and illustrated by the husband and wife team of Stan and Jan Berenstain. Stan passed away this past Saturday at the age of 82 due to complications from cancer. From an article in USA Today:

The real Berenstains collaborated on more than 200 books that featured the Bear family, from The Great Honey Hunt in 1962 to The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores, which was released this fall. Over the years, Papa and Mama Bear helped Brother and later Sister survive family vacations, messy rooms and a case of "the galloping greedy gimmies.

It was a fantasy rooted in the realities of daily life and seasoned with gentle moral lessons. The Bear family tackled everything from stage fright to junk food to bullies.

In 2002, Berenstain told the Associated Press that he liked to deal with the unchanging challenges of family life: "Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket." In Bear Country, "nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through.

The Berenstain Bears became a daily animated cartoon series on public television and inspired two musicals. The latest, The Berenstain Bears Save Christmas, opened Thanksgiving Day. Stan continued to work on rewrites even as his health failed.

Random House, which announced his death Tuesday, said the books would be continued by Jan and sons Michael and Leo.